(1 of )Ecologist Michelle Halbur holds a handful of fruit from a California bay laurel tree, at Pepperwood Preserve, in Santa Rosa, Calif., on September 27, 2013. The large pit of the fruit, which is related to avocado, can be roasted and eaten for its nutritional fat content. (Alvin Jornada / The Press Democrat)

(3 of ) Acorns on a coast live oak tree at Pepperwood Preserve, in Santa Rosa, Calif., on September 27, 2013. (Alvin Jornada / The Press Democrat)

(4 of ) Ecologist Michelle Halbur holds a handful of fruit from a California bay laurel tree, at Pepperwood Preserve, in Santa Rosa, Calif., on September 27, 2013. The large pit of the fruit, which is related to avocado, can be roasted and eaten for its nutritional fat content. (Alvin Jornada / The Press Democrat)

(5 of ) The fruit of a California bay laurel tree, at Pepperwood Preserve, in Santa Rosa, Calif., on September 27, 2013. The large pit of the fruit, which is related to avocado, can be roasted and eaten for its nutritional fat content. (Alvin Jornada / The Press Democrat)

(7 of ) Ecologist Michelle Halbur looks through the branches of a California bay laurel tree for its edible fruit, at Pepperwood Preserve, in Santa Rosa, Calif., on September 27, 2013. (Alvin Jornada / The Press Democrat)

(8 of ) Ecologist Michelle Halbur removes a soaproot bulb from the fibers encasing it, after the plant from the ground at Pepperwood Preserve, in Santa Rosa, Calif., on September 27, 2013. The soaproot bulb can be roasted and eaten like a potato and the inedible fibers can be fashioned into a brush. (Alvin Jornada / The Press Democrat)

(9 of ) Ecologist Michelle Halbur digs up a tuft of soaproot protruding from the ground at Pepperwood Preserve, in Santa Rosa, Calif., on September 27, 2013. The soaproot's starchy bulb can be roasted and eaten like a potato. (Alvin Jornada / The Press Democrat)

(10 of ) Ecologist Michelle Halbur digs up a tuft of soaproot protruding from the ground at Pepperwood Preserve, in Santa Rosa, Calif., on September 27, 2013. The soaproot's starchy bulb can be roasted and eaten like a potato.(Alvin Jornada / The Press Democrat)

(11 of ) Ecologist Michelle Halbur lowers a California bay laurel branch to examine its fruit, at Pepperwood Preserve, in Santa Rosa, Calif., on September 27, 2013. The large pit of the fruit, which is related to avocado, can be roasted and eaten for its nutritional fat content. (Alvin Jornada / The Press Democrat)

(12 of ) Ecologist Michelle Halbur walks from a grove of coast live oak trees, which can be harvested for acorns, at Pepperwood Preserve, in Santa Rosa, Calif., on September 27, 2013. (Alvin Jornada / The Press Democrat)

Edible hikes off the beaten path

JOHN BECK

FOR THE PRESS DEMOCRAT | October 5, 2013

Welcome to the winding fall trail — a path not yet muddied by rains and freed both from the scorching mid-summer sun and the seasonal blanket of coastal fog.

It's that time of year when you can see for miles along the Sonoma County coast. But if you take a moment to look just off the beaten path, into the surrounding plants and trees, there's a cornucopia of food to harvest along the way.

Call it an edible hike, as there's plenty to forage for a meal to be savored after the sojourn.

"It's seasonal and regional and it goes back to what the people who first lived here were living off of," says Autumn Summers, an ethnobotanist and herbalist who's teaching a class on edible plants next weekend at Pepperwood Preserve.

Much in the way that natives once hunted and gathered food all over this region, a forager like Summers will end a hike with roasted bay nuts or a hot acorn meal with berries in the morning or pesto made from young stinging nettle leaves.

"For me it's about having a deeper connection to the wild or the landscape and in a more intimate way," Summers said. "You're going out and gathering acorns, bringing them home and eating them. That's a different relationship than looking at a tree and saying &‘Wow, that's really beautiful.'"

Along with acorns and nettles, this time of year, she sees plenty of bay nuts, manzanita berries (look for red and dried berries) and madrone berries. By early winter, chickweed and miner's lettuce should start popping up.

As November and December approach, it's also time for the heralded mushroom season to kick into gear, one of the most popular foraging pastimes in Northern California.

"Because they're wild, we can only hope and go look," said Linda Morris, a longtime mushroom hunter and member of the Sonoma County Mycological Association. "One of the things that foragers begin to acquire is sort of a language understanding with nature, because really it's just a hope they'll be there."

Part of the trick with mushrooms is training your eye to pick up off-trail clues, almost like a detective. This time of year, chanterelles are starting to appear, often flashing in the distance as the color of "pumpkin flesh," she said.

"First you need a hit of rain, then you need some sun, then the light has to come in at a certain way and you have to be walking at a certain angle to see them — it's all of those things," Morris says. "It's an Easter egg hunt at the funnest level."

And the same applies with edible plants. Summers often tells beginning foragers to look for "not just where things grow but how they grow. For instance, with bay nuts, bay trees will often produce more on sunny slopes, so you can look for that."

And, along the way, it's worth remembering "At worst, you're going to get a beautiful walk in the woods," Morris says. "And at best, you're going to come home with something for dinner. It's hard to complain about that."

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This recipe was adapted from "Lucid Food: Cooking for an Eco-Conscious Life" by Louisa Shafia.